celebration
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Robert Fripp *V 16 1946 / The Life You Give
A truly singular figure in rock music, Robert Fripp is a guitarist, composer, and bandleader who has brought a unique, strikingly intelligent perspective to his work. One of the most technically gifted guitarists in rock, Fripp is the thinking-person’s guitar hero, showing no interest in shredding but eager to challenge himself and blaze new trails…
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George Carlin *V 12 1937 — The Life You Give
George Carlin, born George Denis Patrick Carlin, May 12, 1937, in New York, N.Y., U.S.A., is the comedian whose “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the right to determine when to censor radio and TV broadcasts. Carlin began…
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Joseph Beuys *V 12 1921 — The Life You Give
Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld, a small city in northwest Germany. He was an only child, to the merchant Josef Jakob Beuys and his wife Johanna Maria Margarete Hulsermann. The two were a devout Catholic couple of the northern Rhine-Westphalian middle-class. Just months after Beuys’s birth, the family moved south to the industrial town…
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Salvador Dalí *V 11 1904 — La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
See english text below Salvador Dalí nació el 11 de mayo de 1904 a las 8,45 de la mañana en el pueblo de Figueres, Girona. Bautizado como Salvador, Domingo, Felipe, Jacinto Dalí, hijo de Salvador Dalí i Cusí, notario, y Felipa Doménech. Nació nueve meses y diez días exactos después de enterrado un primer Salvador…
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Billy Joel *V 9 1949 / The Life You Give
Billy Joel, born William Martin Joel, on May 9, 1949, in Bronx, New York, U.S.A., is singer, pianist, and songwriter in the pop ballad tradition whose numerous hit songs in the 1970s and ’80s made him an enduring favourite on the concert circuit. Joel, whose father was a German Jewish immigrant, was raised in Hicksville,…
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Pyotr Tchaikovsky *V 7 1840 / The Life You Give
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, also spelled Chaikovsky, Chaikovskii, or Tschaikowsky, born April 25 [May 7, New Style], 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia, is the most popular Russian composer of all time. His music has always had great appeal for the general public in virtue of its tuneful, open-hearted melodies, impressive harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of…
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Johannes Brahms *V 7 1833 / The Life You Give
Johannes Brahms, born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany, is a composer and pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote symphonies, concerti, chamber music, piano works, choral compositions, and more than 200 songs. Brahms was the great master of symphonic and sonata style in the second half of the 19th century. He can be viewed…
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Bing Crosby *V 3 1903 — The Life You Give
Bing Crosby, born Harry Lillis Crosby, on May 3, 1903, in Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A., is the singer, actor, and songwriter who achieved great popularity in radio, recordings, and motion pictures. He became the archetypal crooner of a period when the advent of radio broadcasting and talking pictures and the refinement of sound-recording techniques made the…
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Alessandro Scarlatti *V 2 1660 — The Life You Give
Alessandro Scarlatti, born Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti, May 2, 1660, Palermo, Sicily, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now in Italy], was a composer of operas and religious works. Scarlatti was sent to Rome at about the age of 12; there he met Bernardo Pasquini, by whom he was greatly influenced. The first of his 115…
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Lars von Trier *IV 30 1956 — The Life You Give
Lars von Trier, born April 30, 1956, in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the film director and cofounder of the Dogme 95 movement, whose films were known for their bleak worldview and controversial subject matter. Von Trier attended the National Film School of Denmark, graduating in 1983. He was born Lars Trier, but while in school he…
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Duke Ellington *IV 29 1899 — The Life You Give
Duke Ellington, born Edward Kennedy Ellington, April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., is the pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive…
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Ludwig Wittgenstein *IV 26 1889 — The Life You Give
Ludwig Wittgenstein, born Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, on April 26, 1889, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now in Austria], is the philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Wittgenstein’s two major works, Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung (1921; Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922) and Philosophische Untersuchungen (published posthumously in 1953; Philosophical Investigations), have inspired a vast secondary…
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Ella Fitzgerald *IV 25 1917 — The Life You Give
Ella Fitzgerald, born Ella Jane Fitzgerald, on April 25 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, U.S.A., is the jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range and rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades. As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer,…
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Barbra Streisand *IV 24 1942 — The Life You Give
Barbra Streisand, born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, is the singer, composer, actress, director, and producer who was considered by many to be the greatest popular singer of her generation. The first major female star to command roles as a Jewish actress, Streisand redefined female stardom in the 1960s and…
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Yehudi Menuhin *IV 22 1916 — The Life You Give
Yehudi Menuhin, Lord Menuhin of Stoke d’Abernon, born April 22, 1916, New York, New York, is considered one of the leading violin virtuosos of the 20th century. Menuhin grew up in San Francisco, where he studied violin from age four and where his performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at age seven caused a sensation.…
Sila Blume 